kristine m. reyes

I am thrilled to announce that my ten-minute play, Ready, Aim…Fire! has now been published on Indie Theater Now as part of ESPA at Primary Stages’ Detention Series! This is my first published play – and my first comedy! – and I’m excited to share it with you all!

Detention is a monthly series in which ESPA presents a writing prompt/challenge to its playwriting students. With less than two weeks to write, the plays are then selected for a one-night only, barebones production, directed by and starring ESPA students, at Jimmy’s No. 43 in New York City. My Detention theme was “Blind Date” and I had a blast writing it and collaborating with my fellow students to put it up. The whole collaboration process did, in fact, feel like a blind date, so it was fitting!

So now, for the price of a song (literally!), you can purchase the collection of plays featured in Detention 3: Blind Date, including mine:
http://www.indietheaternow.com/Play/detention-3-blind-date

And be sure to browse around and check out the entire Detention Series Collection (the first 15 are up with more to come!). There are some amazingly talented playwrights included in that roster, and I’m both humbled and proud to be amongst them. And to read more about my Detention experience, click here.

Happy reading!

How is it already almost June?? Well, if the weather here in NYC is any indication, it’s definitely already summertime in the city! And if it’s summer, then that means I am woefully overdue for an update! So here goes…

The most exciting news that’s come about in the last few months is that I’m going to have one of my plays published for the first time! Yes, that’s right, I will be a published playwright! My ten-minute play, Ready, Aim…Fire!, written for and produced by ESPA at Primary Stages’ Detention Series, will be published along with all the other plays from the first 15 Detentions.

I’m so thrilled to be included in such an amazingly talented roster of fellow ESPA playwrights! And I’m even more excited to share this fun little play with all the folks who didn’t get a chance to see it during Detention or Leviathan Lab’s Asian American Women Playwrights Short Play Festival back in 2011.

The publication is still forthcoming, but for now you can check out my spiffy playwright profile on Indie Theater Now’s website:

Kristine M. Reyes on Indie Theater Now

And since you’re tooling around on the world wide web anyway, you might as well check out my first ever guest blog post for the Women in Theatre series for the League of Professional Theatre Women and Howlround. These are both excellent and vital organizations that do so much for playwrights and the theater community, so it was an honor to participate in this series. If you’re curious about getting a glimpse into my writing process (which I’m sure is not unique to me!), here’s your chance:

Slaying the Dragon

And last but not least, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a quick update about the fantastic time I had in Minneapolis for the New Eyes Festival back in December. The folks at MU Performing Arts were so warm, welcoming and generous, and it was a wonderful experience! My fellow Leviathan Labbie playwright partner-in-crime, Marisa Marquez, also had her play Cyber Fishing read during the festival, and we had a blast painting the town brown that weekend (brown because we’re Filipina, see?).

I had a great time just sitting back and watching the fabulous actors, Katie, Brandon and Allen, do their thing with my plays under the sure-handed direction of Rich. It was really cool to hear my plays again with fresh ears, in front of a brand new audience. And I survived my first post-show talkback! The audience was engaged throughout, and had some really thoughtful and positive feedback for me. And I gotta say, the people of Minneapolis, in general, were sweet as all get-out. I hope to make a return visit soon to catch more theater in the Twin Cities…and work with MU again in the future too, of course!

Here I am with my cast, director and MU’s former Artistic Director Rick Shiomi:

(L-R: Rich Remedios, Brandon Ewald, Katie Bradley, Kristine M. Reyes, Allen Malicsi, Sara Ochs, and Rick Shiomi // Photo credit: Eric Sharp)

That’s all for now, folks! I’ll be sure to let you know when Ready, Aim…Fire! is up and ready to go. Until then, stay cool and enjoy your summer!

It’s been an incredible year of having two of my new plays produced here in New York City, and now I’m off to see two of my older one-acts presented as staged readings in Minneapolis!  As part of an Emerging Playwrights Exchange between Leviathan Lab and MU Performing Arts, Quarter Century Baby and Something Blue will be performed as part of MU’s New Eyes Festival of New Works.

It’s the first time my plays will be performed outside of NYC and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be introduced to a new theater community!  It will be exciting to share my work with a brand new audience and I’m eager to see how they’ll all respond to it – there will even be a talkback after the performances!  Both plays were originally produced by Diverse City Theater Company in 2010, so it will be nice to hear these plays with fresh ears.  Who knows, I may even be inspired to revisit these short plays and expand them into full-lengths!

So if you happen to be in the Twin Cities area this weekend, come on down and check out the festival!  There is a great roster of other plays being performed, and I feel pretty honored to be in such good company.

MU Performing Arts’ New Eyes Festival of New Works
Saturday, December 1^st @ 7pm – FREE

Directed by Rich Remedios

Quarter Century Baby
With Katie Bradley and Brandon Ewald

Something Blue
With Katie Bradley and Allen Malicsi

MU Performing Arts’ Studio Space
2700 NE Winter Street, Suite 1A
Minneapolis, MN 55413

Read all about the festival in the Star Tribune:
Playwrights’ Center and MU Performing Arts try out new works

The 2012 ESPA at Primary Stages Rockwell Scholars From Left: Patrice Bell, Anna Nugent, David Davila, Kristine M. Reyes // Photo credit: Jon Kandel

On January 31st, Primary Stages announced their upcoming  2012-2013 Season and unveiled their new scholarship program named after the late Mary Louise Rockwell, a long-time board member of the acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company.   According to Tessa LaNeve, Literary Manager of Primary Stages and Director of ESPA, “Each year, five individuals will be selected for this distinguished award based on their overwhelming generosity of spirit, commitment to their craft, enthusiasm for our school, and longstanding reliability.”

The 2012 ESPA at Primary Stages Rockwell Scholars were introduced that evening, and I’m ecstatic to share the news that I’m one of them!  The other Rockwell Scholars are Patrice Bell, David Brian Colbert, David Davila and Anna Nugent, and I’m excited to be amongst a group of such lovely and talented theater artists!

As Scholars, we’ll receive guaranteed Work Study positions as Teaching Assistants in one class each for the Spring and Summer semesters.  The instructors for whom we TA – all working theater professionals – will also serve as our mentors.

As an ESPA student for the past two years, I have become more prolific, more disciplined, more inspired and more determined to continue my journey as a playwright.  I have not only built my craft, I have also built relationships with fellow students, my instructors and the staff at ESPA and Primary Stages.   It’s an incredible honor to be recognized as a valued member of the ESPA and Primary Stages community, and I’m thrilled to represent them as a Rockwell Scholar.

I really can’t say enough about ESPA.  If you want to read more, check out:

My piece on ESPA’s Detention Series

My Yelp review of ESPA